“Boys—a bridge! Quick!—Make a bridge! We’ve only a minute to do it. They’ve got the Captain loose, and he’s coming on like a deer. Get lively! A bridge! A bridge!” The Doctor began to wonder what they were going to make a bridge out of, and he gazed around to see if they had any boards hidden any place. But when he looked back at the cliff, there, hanging across the river, was a bridge all ready for him—made of living monkeys! For while his back was turned, the monkeys—quick as a flash—had made themselves into a bridge, just by holding hands and feet. And the big one shouted to the Doctor, “Walk over! Walk over—all of you—hurry!” Gub-Gub was a bit scared, walking on such a narrow bridge at that dizzy height above the river. But he got over all right; and so did all of them. John Dolittle was the last to cross. And just as he was getting to the other side, the King’s men came rushing up to the edge of the cliff. Then they shook their fists and yelled with rage. For they saw they were too late. The Doctor and all his animals were safe in the Land of the Monkeys and the bridge was pulled across to the other side. Then Chee-Chee turned to the Doctor and said, “Many great explorers and gray-bearded naturalists have lain long weeks hidden in the jungle waiting to see the monkeys do that trick. But we never let a white man get a glimpse of it before. You are the first to see the famous ‘Bridge of Apes.’” And the Doctor felt very pleased. [Illustration: “John Dolittle was the last to cross”] _THE EIGHTH CHAPTER_ THE LEADER OF THE LIONS JOHN DOLITTLE now became dreadfully, awfully busy. He found hundreds and thousands of monkeys sick—gorillas, orang-outangs, chimpanzees, dog-faced baboons, marmosettes, gray monkeys, red ones—all kinds. And many had died. The first thing he did was to separate the sick ones from the well ones. Then he got Chee-Chee and his cousin to build him a little house of grass. The next thing: he made all the monkeys who were still well come and be vaccinated. And for three days and three nights the monkeys kept coming from the jungles and the valleys and the hills to the little house of grass, where the Doctor sat all day and all night, vaccinating and vaccinating. [Illustration: “He made all the monkeys who were still well come and be vaccinated”] Then he had another house made—a big one, with a lot of beds in it; and he put all the sick ones in this house. But so many were sick, there were not enough well ones to do the nursing. So he sent messages to the other animals, like the lions and the leopards and the antelopes, to come and help with the nursing. But the Leader of the Lions was a very proud creature. And when he came to the Doctor’s big house full of beds he seemed angry and scornful. “Do you dare to ask me, Sir?” he said, glaring at the Doctor. “Do you dare to ask me—_ME, the King of Beasts_, to wait on a lot of dirty monkeys? Why, I wouldn’t even eat them between meals!”